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Chelsea vs. Tottenham Hostpur Betting Preview & Soccer Picks

Chelsea remains the only unbeaten club in the EPL and on Wednesday the Blues will dance with crosstown rivals Tottenham Hotspur in a London derby which has been kind to the hosts. Chelsea’s the bet here.

Odds Overview
Chelsea vs.Tottenham Hotspur, Wednesday 19:45, (NBCSN, Directv, Mun2 NBC Sports Live Extra (US), 2:45 p.m. ET/11:45 a.m. PT): This mid-week London derby sees host and unbeaten Chelsea (10-3-0, 30 GF-11 GA, +19 GD, 33 points) welcome city rivals Tottenham Hotspur (6-2-5, 18 GF-18 GA, o GD, 20 points) to West London and Stamford Bridge for this encounter in which the host Blues will have to take on Spurs without leading scorer Diego Costa (11 goals) who was suspended for this match after receiving his fifth Yellow Card of the season on Saturday at Sunderland.

The soccer odds makers have obviously made hoists Chelsea big -250 Favorites in the Three-Way (Winner) marketplace with Tottenham very healthy Underdogs at +800 and the Draw priced at +400 (bet365). The Total Goals here is set at 2½ Over -142 (Under +110, Ladbrokes) while the popular Both Teams To Score prop is at (Yes) -137 (No +100; bet365). And, of note here: Through 162 matches in English Premier League play, there were Over 2½ goals exactly 55% of the time while both teams scoring (BTTS) occurred 52.33% of the time. Home teams had won 49 games, Visitors had won 36 while 35 ended in a Draw. The average scoring per game was 1.52 gpg for the Home side and 1.19 gpg for the Road teams, extremely close to last season’s final averages of 1.57-1.19.

Two random prop bets worth looking at with your soccer picks in this matchup: Chelsea To Win To Nil is priced a nice little plus (+130, BetVictor) while the Correct Score (prop bet) predicted below of 2-0 had its highest soccer odds on the Oddschecker screen at 13/2 (+650, BetVictor) on Sunday evening.

Tottenham Hotspur FC
Headed into this Wednesday game, Tottenham Hotspur (3-2-1 Away, 9 GF-9 GA) and manager Mauricio Pochettino sit in 7th place in the Premier League table, tied with North London rivals Arsenal (hosts Southampton Wednesday) on 20 points but behind the Gunners on GD (0 to +6). Spurs earned a nice win on Sunday at Home at White Hart Lane, edging Everton, 2-1. Tottenham looked good in the win and Spurs have also been extremely impressive in UEFA Europa League play this season, but like aforementioned Arsenal—as well as Manchester United and Liverpool—this club is sort of an enigma.

Last year in this fixture, Chelsea won 4-0, scoring all four goals in the last 35 minutes as Tottenham played a good game in the first half—and this could happen again here with both sides having to be a little tired—Spurs will be playing on only two days (Monday and Tuesday) rest—and with Costa suspended, one of the best goalkeepers in the world in the Blues net (Thibaut Courtois or Petr Cech) and Chelsea coming off a game against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Saturday night where it was held scoreless in a scary 0-0 Draw, the Under 2½ looks appetizing.

Tottenham will look to Emmanuel Adebayor (+375, Anytime Goalscorer, bet365), Sunday’s game-winning goal-scorer Roberto Soldado (+375), Erik Lamela (+550), Paulinho (+550), Nacer Chadli (+600), Christian Eriksen (+600), Christian Ceballos (+600) and Andros Townsend (+800) to score against the league’s best defense at Chelsea (sorry Southampton), but expect quality shots on target by both teams in this one to be somewhat scarce, another potentially good thing for Under bettors.

Chelsea FCLeague-leaders Chelsea (6-0-0 Home, 15 GF-3 GA) head into this derby off of a tough 0-0 Draw at Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Saturday in which José Mourinho’s men were really put to the test and almost had its unbeaten season become a memory. But with that defense and Courtois and a celery-loving woodwork-crossbar, the Blues still have that ‘0’ in their record and sit 6 points ahead of second-place Manchester City (33-27) headed into this quick Week 14 of Premier League play.

With Costa out, The Special One will have to turn to either club legend Didier Drogba or Loïc Rémy up top in the striker spot in the club’s 4-2-3-1 tactical formation. The 36-year-old Ivorian didn’t play much against the Black Cats, but either way, not having Costa available is a significant reality for handicappers of this game and Spurs could be the team to finally beat Mourinho in West London...and +800 and +400 are really nice prices for Tottenham and the Draw, respectively. These are the holidays now, right?

Best Betting Approaches and Trends
Whether or not Spurs likely goalkeeper Hugo Lloris can have a good game (if he plays) is a big thing when contemplating a bet or bets for this particular game and Spurs played an effective high-line against the Toffees in Sunday’s win in North London and will probably look to do so again here against Chelsea. With probable tired bodies—both from play and from travel—two decent defenses and Costa sidelined, backing the Under at Even money or a small plus seems wise here as at this point on the calendar and in the season and with the UEFA Champions League and Europa League wear-and-tear, this almost had to be a low-scoring grudge-type match with Spurs nemesis Drogba (1 EPL goal 2014-15 season) maybe getting the game-decider as he did in the FA Cup semis in Wembley Stadium a couple of years ago.

With Chelsea so good at Home under Mourinho, you almost have to keep backing the Blues in these type of situations and in the last 21 meetings here at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea is an unbeaten 14-7-0 (42 GF-11 GA) against Spurs and has pretty much owned Tottenham. And with the Blues a bit worried with defending league champions Manchester City now creeping up in second place, expect Mourinho to come with a fairly aggressive game-plan to try to get that valuable first goal—if there is one—in this game and then focus on limiting Tottenham’s quality chances down on the other end. And although this is the perfect chance to give Cech the start and Courtois the rest, who knows with Mourinho, but either way, the Home team will still have one of the top goalkeepers on the planet on the pitch come Wednesday. But still, expect Chelsea to be a little nervous here after Sunderland.